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Fall Leaves

My red-flowered witch hazel gets reddish leaves in fall and my yellow-flowered gets yellowish leaves. Even if they start flowering in fall they have the same color of the flowers as usual.Are you sure it is not a shoot from the rootstock, witch hazels are always grafted?

Are you sure it is not a shoot from the rootstock, witch hazels are always grafted?

I don't think so... I had a couple of grafted Japanese maples succumb to the graft dying and the understock taking over, so I'm familiar with the concern. I'm not happy with this plant, and plan to replace it with a better witch hazel some time.

An online translation has "bjørk" meaning "birch" in English. But from the text, I gather it does mean witch hazel. So does "bjørk" mean both birch and witch hazel, or only witch hazel?

Oh sorry, that I didn't clarify that. Witch hazel does not occur wild in Norway (or Europe) at all. "Bjørk" = "birch" and is nothing else. To make "vidjespenning" and other items like "tønnebånd" = hoop for barrels etc, they also used other kind of wood like hazel ("hassel" in Norwegian) , spruce ("gran" in Norw.) and sallow/willow ("selje"/"vier") and others.

When the first Europeans arrived in America they discovered the winterbloom/witch hazel and the similarity with (the leaves of) hazel (cobnut). They soon found that the young shoots were as usable as the shoots of hazel/birch etc.

2-5 Same town center, in most years this particular old Sugar Maple turns an amazing fluorescent red. It looked orange a week ago, but now the outer canopy is turning red, notice in the close-up photos that the leaves start taking on a black red color, glowing with a golden yellow center to the tree.

6-7 I know, I keep showing my Sourwood Tree, Oxydendron arboreum, but the color is just so good, and with the persistent white flower pedicels, I get a strong impression of Christmas whenever I look at this superb tree. On the "side view" photo, notice that the tree colors on the right side (south-facing side) first, still with some green leaves on the left side (north-facing side). It's been colorful for nearly 2 months.

8 A view looking beyond the Sourwood Tree to other trees not yet colored up, but in the center is Chionanthus virginicus of Fringe Tree, taking on chartreuse color; it will turn a fairly good yellow. I'm pleased with this tree, as I have trained as a single trunk (often Fringe trees are ungainly multi-stemmed affairs) as experimented with pruning between the long bud internodes to see if the lanky branches could be stimulated into better branches, the answer is yes.

9 Euonymus sachalinensis, after a fantastic display of red and orange capsules and seeds, this species has a nice flush of opeachy orange color.

10 Syringa meyeri 'Palibin' - such a great small shrub, I plant them strategically placed such as near my front door, to enjoy the intense perfume in late spring, but the pink-to-reddish-pink fall foliage is interesting too.

This morning it was mild and misty, making for some seductively moody views of the garden dressed in fall color. Here's a miscellany of images:

1-2 View from my roof, looking down at Oxydendrum arboreum at peak color in the foreground, Chionanthus virginicus (fringe tree) starting to turning yellow in the center, and Stewartia pseudocamellia in the background turning a darker shade of red this year.

6 Stewartia pseudocamellia, coloring late this year, and instead of the fiery rose-orange color, it is mostly red with highlights or orange and yellow.

7 Oxydendrum arboreum (again Roll Eyes) - we were supposed to have a hard frost a couple nights ago, but it just barely reached the freezing point, enough to stimulate added brilliance to fall foliage, never have I seen my Sourwood Tree color as brilliantly as this year. This photo was taken in afternoon light yesterday.

8-9 Views from my roof looking down at my deck, the brilliant flame color shrub under the deck is Spiraea japonica 'Candlelight', a truly colorful cultivar that is brilliant gold in spring, glowing chartreuse all summer, and red-orange-pink in autumn. The white mound next to it is Aster pilosus (Symphyotrichum pilosum, Frost Aster or as I call it the Vanilla Cookie Aster) To the lower right is Rhododendron 'PJM', a cultivar required in every yard in New England ( ;D) which shows surprisingly good fall color.

10 A late afternoon view from my living room, yellow-orange glow of fall color.

I love trees and shrubs, Mark, and with the added bonus of fall color they are irresistible! I have some in my garden but they seldom show good coloring. Oxydendrum have I tried to sow but not succeeded with. Maybe they need warmer summers?

I have a leaf shredder which is basically a string trimmer in a tube. You shove the leaves down the tube and it gobbles them right up. Mine will even handle Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) leaves which are these huge, plant smothering monstrosities. My shredder came from Sears but it was obviously made by Flowtron. I don't believe Sears sells leaf shredders any more, however. I recently saw an ad for a leaf shredder from a company called (I thinK) Worx. There may be other companies out there for all I know.

My Meconopsis 'Linghom' loves its yearly top dressing of shredded maple leaves. I've managed to have blooming blue meconoopsis for several years now and I credit the mulch and the soil benefits it brings for my success.